The federal Conservatives are courting football executive Larry Smith to run in a Montreal riding in the hope of snapping a long cycle of futility in Canada's second-biggest city.
A Tory riding association on the island says it has approached Smith, a former CFL commissioner and outgoing Montreal Alouettes president, about running for the party.
An executive with the Tories' Lac-Saint-Louis riding association says the interest appears mutual: the association has been informed that Smith has expressed an interest in running.
If so, the Tories might have their best chance of breaking into Montreal since the end of the Mulroney era in 1993.
They have been distant also-rans in that riding, and across the city, in recent elections.
"I think he'd be a good candidate," Lac-Saint-Louis riding executive member Stephen Pickford said Tuesday.
"He's a name candidate, he's somebody who would work hard for the riding and is known to the people. I think that's what we need - is somebody who has a high profile and a high visibility."
Montreal has proven to be a far tougher nut for the Tories to crack than Toronto - where the governing party holds a dozen seats and has managed to attract star candidates like ex-police chief Julian Fantino.
But the Tories don't hold a seat within 170 kilometres of what has been, for them, an electoral wasteland.
When the Tories sought to run then-minister Michael Fortier as a candidate in the last election, they bypassed the city and launched an ill-fated campaign to have the urban lawyer elected in a sprawling semi-rural area.
But Pickford said his Montreal-area association recently spoke with Smith about becoming a candidate - and he expressed an interest.
However, he says, Smith wasn't able to commit a few months back because he was examining some business opportunities and wanted to consider the impact a political career might have on his family.
This week, Smith, 59, announced that he will step down as president and CEO of the Alouettes at the end of the year.
This isn't the first time the ex-Alouettes player and former newspaper publisher has expressed interest in politics - or the Conservative party.
He considered a run for the leadership of the Tories in 2004.
"I do know that Larry's kept his foot in the door in the door with regards to the party as a whole," Pickford said.
Smith, who also played with the Alouettes from 1972 to 1980, was asked by a reporter after his resignation announcement Monday if he would turn to politics.
"I don't know about politics . . . you're the one who's been bugging me about that for the last decade," Smith told a reporter at the news conference.
"But we'll wait and see what happens. Right now, my preoccupation is let's get the season over with, let's be successful, I want to get myself organized, I want to have a holiday, I want to hit the road running."
Conservative circles are now abuzz with rumours that a party announcement about Smith's candidacy is imminent.
Tongues began wagging when Smith appeared in September as MC at a Tory barbecue attended by several prominent Conservatives, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
However, sources in Ottawa closer to Harper said they were unaware of any impending announcement.
In the last three elections, Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia trounced his opposition in Lac-Saint-Louis, on Montreal's West Island. Conservative candidates Andrea Paine (twice) and Jeff Howard finished a distant second to Scarpaleggia at the end of each race.
The Liberal margin of victory over the Tories was 52 percentage points in 2004, 21 per cent in 2006 and 22 per cent in 2008.
But neither of the recent Tory candidates had Smith's star appeal.
Regardless, Scarpaleggia says he has no plans to change his campaign approach for any future rival - famous or not.
"I run my campaigns on value and policy and I never pay much attention to who my opponents have been," he said in an interview Tuesday.
In 1988, NDP leader Jack Layton's father, Bob, was the last Conservative MP to win Lac-Saint-Louis.
One political expert in Montreal called Smith a "local hero," but expressed doubts that even he could crack the long-time Liberal stronghold.
"Those are deep Liberal ridings," McGill University political scientist Antonia Maioni said of the city's western suburbs.
But just running a candidate of Smith's stature in the city would be a victory for Tories, she added.
"It would signal that there are some serious, high-profile candidates who are willing to stick their necks out for the Conservative party in Quebec," Maioni said.
Smith has business interests in a moving company and public speaking. He is also a board member of the Canadian Olympic Committee and is chairman of the Canada Games committee.
An entry into politics would bring a new level of scrutiny to a track record that has, so far, helped him become a local celebrity.
An early taste of that came Tuesday in his old newspaper, the Montreal Gazette, where he was a publisher.
The newspaper quoted anonymous sources taking personal shots at him and questioning whether he wasn't actually becoming a drag on the Alouettes franchise.
Before joining the Alouettes, Smith led the CFL through its star-crossed expansion into the U.S. He then moved to Montreal, taking over the Alouettes as the franchise experienced a turnaround. Smith left the team in 2001 to become publisher of the Gazette, but he returned to his football post in 2004.
His two stints with the Alouettes have lasted a total of 12 years.
Smith said Monday that he's leaving the Alouettes to pursue other interests, but he would not elaborate.
" I think I'd like to have one more big adventure," Smith said.
"I think I have a lot of energy left."